The worse the crime, the more adamant is the police
officer assigned to tell the crowd to keep moving.
"There's nothing to see here." The crowds are usually
told this when what there is to see is especially
disturbing.

You can't blame the police officer who tells the people to
move on -- in order for the investigation to continue, and
for there to be a reduction in confusion, it's important to
keep the area clear. The last thing the police need is for
a panicked mob scene to form. "There's nothing to see
here" is not exactly the truth -- but it's necessary to say it.

Now the United States government has, in essence,
taken on the role of that police officer at the murder
scene. "There's nothing to see here," the American
people are being told. "Go on home. Go about your
business. There's nothing to see."

But of course there is -- and of course, as in the case of
the police officer on the sidewalk, the government should
not be too harshly criticized for telling us not to stand and
gawk. We know that what is going on today is very bad --
and our government, from the president on down, knows
that we know it. Our government is telling us to go about
our business, because to say anything else would not
be especially helpful. We, like the people on the
sidewalk, are willing to move along -- but we also know
the truth.

The anthrax letters are a case in point. For years now,
the unleashing of anthrax by terrorists has been held up
as the ultimate example of just how awful things might conceivably get. The anthrax
scenario has long been presented to make us understand how high the stakes are.
No one really talked in terms of it actually happening.

Now that it has -- now that, evidently, anthrax has been delivered to Americans by the
U.S. Postal Service -- we are suddenly being given the bioterrorism version of "There's
nothing to see here, folks -- just go about your business." Now that anthrax is here, we
are being told: Oh, that's mostly just cutaneous anthrax -- not the really bad kind. Oh,
anthrax is easily treated with a plentifully manufactured antibiotic -- people who
develop anthrax will be just as good as new in no time. Anthrax? It's not as serious as
you think.

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

We should not be angry at the government for trying to keep us calm. What are they
supposed to do -- advise us to hyperventilate and tremble?

But there is, in fact, something to see here. And we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

At first, when some of the cable networks continued to show the planes crashing into
the World Trade Center as promo footage for their newscasts -- the planes hitting the
buildings over and over, with theme music -- I thought that was as close to
pornography as anything could ever be. Using the airplane footage in that way -- it
struck me as appallingly callous, and disrespectful to the people who died on the
planes and in the buildings.

But now I'm beginning to think we should see that footage on a fairly regular basis.
Just so that we don't begin to let it fade away. Right now, we are seeing video footage
of pain and suffering on the ground in Afghanistan, the result of the American
bombing. Enough of that footage, and it might push what happened Sept. 11-- and
everything since, including the anthrax -- out of the forefront of our thoughts.

We should see the footage from the ground in Afghanistan. But we should also see --
forever -- what happened in New York, and in Washington, and in Pennsylvania.
"There's nothing to see here, folks. Move along."

We'll move along, as our government asks us to. But we know what we've
seen.

JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.